Okay so I haven't said it in a while. Not mine, never will be, can we move on now?

A Dragon's Heart – Chapter 22

Back at the clan's estate, a young black dragon is tinkering with one of her inventions. Although her portable desert island performed perfectly yesterday (as all Hotaru Imai products do), she has since come up with a few modifications she could add. Perhaps she could call this the deluxe model and increase the price by fifty percent. It would make a decent profit.

Hotaru knew that other people thought she was greedy and money hungry. And they were partly right. When her clan was taken over by the king she had learned the hard way that it is always important to keep an emergency nest egg. But what those fools did not take into account was the money she had to spend in raw materials. Sure, she could have bought some parts that were pre-fabricated, but she was never comfortable having parts where someone else held the patent inside of her work. No, she liked her creations to be hers and hers alone. That meant she had to make everything but the nuts and bolts from scratch, and that meant spending extra money for materials and equipment.

Her little nest egg was sizable, but it was nowhere near what people thought it was.

The inventor was trying to decide the best place to put a sleeping compartment and lavatory when her phone started ringing. Because she was working, she was tempted to ignore it, but that particular ring tone belonged to Hyuuga. She absently pressed the accept button and brought it to her ear without really looking at it. "Imai." She answered curtly.

There was a pause for a second or two and she was beginning to wonder what his problem was when her phone meowed at her. Although none of her shock could be seen from the outside, her stomach dropped to her feet and she almost dropped the phone. Carefully pulling the phone away from her ear to look at it, she was stunned and a little horrified to see the image of a cat walk across her screen, sprout wings, and fly off.

The evacuation code. Inside, Hotaru felt her heart rate and breathing speed up. This was it. This was really it. She had already known and expected something like this was going happen, but it was still hard for her brilliant mind to process.

Truthfully, she had no psychic ability at all, but she had been observing the red dragon heir for some time now. When Hyuuga had dragged that fish out of the water a few days ago she had predicted that all of their lives would be drastically forever changed. At first she did not know whether to welcome the sea dragon or fear her arrival. In the end though, she found herself being almost as charmed by her as Hyuuga was. It was an unusual feeling for her.

The sound of footsteps running towards her reached her keen ears and she was not surprised to see her mate hovering at the door with an intense look on his face. He was breathing hard and had to use one hand to brace himself against the doorframe while the other one held his cell phone tightly.

She looked at her mate for a few heartbeats feeling oddly relieved that he was there. Hayate could seem like such a goof at times that it was easy to forget how loyal his heart was. She looked at him and could feel nothing but adoration and trust from him. He had total faith in her and at times like these where her own faith in herself was weak, his strength helped bolster her own.

And that was Hotaru Imai's true favorite currency. No, it wasn't money like everyone believed, although having money could afford a small amount of this most treasured of things. But all of the money in the world could not completely buy it out. No, the thing that Hotaru valued most above all else was control.

All the moneymaking schemes, all the blackmailing, all the dark threats, even in her own mating, was a way for her to control her own destiny. Maybe it was the black dragon in her, but more than anything, Hotaru needed to feel she was in control. She had been out of control once in her life already, and she would everything in her power to never feel that way again.

Right, I can do this. I have practiced this in my head a thousand times. I know my job, and I can do it. She told herself with shaky confidence. She got up and walked over to her private vault where she had been storing a few useful creations. She pulled out a few select items and locked it back up. Idly, she wondered if there would ever be a time when she would ever get to retrieve the rest of the items in the vault. Terrible loss, but I can always re-create every one of those items from memory. The blueprints and patents are already backed up.

Hotaru turned to give Hayate a grim, determined look. He used a quick burst of speed to cross the room and snake his arm around her waist. She let him kiss her. Normally she was not comfortable with such displays of affection, but there was a small calculated percentage that suggested that one or both of them might not make it through to tomorrow. A small token of affection was certainly acceptable under the circumstances.

Hayate pulled away and gave her a grim look. "You will be careful." He told her. It was as close to an order as he had ever given her. It irked her to hear it, but she chose not to make an issue of it since she also understood that he was a male dragon. Protecting his mate was bred into him on the cellular level.

The pair parted and he nodded at her "Good luck."

She gave him a cool nod in return. "If you do not return to me in the exact state you are in now, I will be very cross." It was as close as she could get to a gushing affectionate good-bye and he knew it. He gave her a cheeky, boyish smile, a quick peck on her lips, and bounded off.

Although, her lips wanted to pull into a small smile, she fought it off and pulled on her usual cool façade. They all had their assigned tasks. Hers was to monitor the king and his people and make sure the younger and weaker members of their group escaped with as little notice as possible. Hayate was supposed to guide and guard them.

Enough with the fears and worries. She told herself harshly. Fear would get her nothing. Focus is what she needed now. She had work to do.

When Shuichi Sakarano's phone went off he was in the middle of teaching. Teaching duties were divided between himself and a rather uptight brown dragon named Jinno.

Big as their clan was, it was not big enough to have its own school. Rather, the children were usually homeschooled up to grade 6 when they were old enough to have control over their powers and understood the value of hiding the fact that they were different from other children.

His class was busy with their heads down trying to practice their kanji when he felt the vibration at his hip. Being Natsume Hyuuga's unofficial executive assistant, it was not the first time his phone had gone off in class so the children were somewhat used to seeing him get calls. He was lucky that they were not particularly curious or observant this day because they might have noticed the drain of color to his face or the wild look that came in to his eyes. Forcing his face into a neutral expression, he addressed his students.

"Alright everyone, that should be good for now. Why don't we break a bit early for lunch and you can all meet me back here in after lunch?" he suggested with only a hint of tremor in his voice. He would much rather suspend class for the day, but to do that might arouse suspicions. A few of his students gave him odd looks, but no one questioned him.

It was all he could do not to run back to his house using his top dragon speed but he somehow managed to get there with as much nonchalance as he could muster. When he got there, he was not surprised to see Natsume's draman brother there waiting for him.

"Luka, is there something I can do for you?" he asked cautiously, but did not stand around to wait for an answer.

In a move that would probably look very rude to an outsider, he walked away from his guest. Instead of chatting, he crossed the room and opened a small cupboard that held various innocuous cleaning supplies. Reaching for the back past a broom, he hooked his fingertips on a rather plain looking hook. Pulling the hook he activated the magic/electronic dampener his sister-in-law created for such occasions. When she had first installed it he had felt a little ridiculous like he was stuck in some kind of second-rate spy movie. But he had never been so happy to see that stupid hook as he was now.

Once activated, no one would be able to listen in either magically or electronically. Perhaps he was being overly paranoid, but his intuition told him otherwise. As a quick check, he stretched his senses to their limits and did not hear anyone but Luka and his mate Subaru who was approaching fast. As soon as Subaru passed through the door he looked at Luka.

"What happened?"

The draman gave a quick synopsis of what had happened including Aoi being missing and that the girl Mikan had actually come to Japan in hopes of finding her parents killers. Shuichi was willing to admit that he did not think any better of the girl's plans for coming here than Natsume or Luka did, but she had obviously not been raised in a clan where any mistake you do is used against you.

"Natsume just contacted me saying the sea dragons would be willing to help by pulling anyone who cannot fly on boats."

Shuichi looked at Subaru. "Surely your sister has something we can use. Explain the situation and see what she has got. Luka, I need you to text Koko. He has been hanging around that one sea dragon since she came out of the water. He should be close enough to talk to them." The phone at his hip had been vibrating for several minutes now and he was running out of time before he had to get back to his students.

He looked at his phone and found five text messages had come to him all practically on top of one another. The one from Koko he could ignore because Luka was already taking care of it. He sent a quick reply to the others reminding them what their tasks were.

'Don't forget to eat something.' His mate gently reminded him in his mind.

Yes mother. He answered snidely before continuing I don't have time for food, I have to get back to my students and somehow try to look like everything is normal and casual.

His mate sent him a few unpleasant words about being called mother 'I still have some left over bento from yesterday sitting in the fridge.'

Oh you mean from the food you stole from the others yesterday?

'Now is not the time for one of your lectures.'

Just be careful okay? I don't know what I would do if something happened to you.

'You would be your usual bossy self.'

SUBARU! Trust his mate to spoil a perfectly good moment with his abrasive behavior.

'Shhh,' his mate said soberly 'I know what you are trying to say, and you know I do too.' For Subaru, that was downright mushy.

Shuichi closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Right, there were a million things to do and only a few short hours before full dark to do them.

"Stop following me!" She turned and yelled at him.

"What, do you think I want to be stuck babysitting you? You should be thanking me."

"For what? Being a stalker?"

"Pu-l-ease. As if anyone would want to stalk a seaweed head like you. Now your cousin on the other hand, I'd be seriously interested in stalking. If Natsume wasn't already stalking her of course." Inside, he winced a little. That was probably a little uncalled for.

Right on cue, she spun and glared daggers at him. Maybe it would have been best not to poke at that particular sore spot.

The problem was he really could not resist needling Sumire. He felt like it was somehow his duty to poke a few holes in that overinflated ego of hers, but even as he thought it though, he winced knowing that most of that was a lie.

She was not overly egotistical. At best, she could be called confident, and as a mind reader, he knew that her confidence was not rock solid. Her self-assurance was just as fragile as anyone else. And like chinks in armor, he just could not stop himself from jabbing at those gaps.

He said her hair looked like seaweed. She said he was an obnoxious jerk.

He asked if her voice was as high and screechy as it was it talk to dolphins and porpoises better, she said his laughing sounded like a donkey upchucking its lunch.

If he was really in the mood to be honest with himself he would have to admit that she kind of intimidated him. They were nowhere near socially equal and if he wanted any chance with her, he would have to level the playing field.

The very sad truth was he was only a young silver air dragon in a clan with two reds and an abundance of older and stronger silver and blacks. Among their clan that landed him at about the top of the middle class. If you factored in his mindreading ability and his closeness with the clan heir, he might be able to squeeze in at the bottom of the top class in his clan. Either way he was certainly no one to be impressed by.

Sumire in the other hand was a female sea dragon. If he understood their society correctly, what little social order system they had put her near the top. To make things worse for him, their females seemed to have an innate attraction to strong, dominant males. Something he definitely was not. If he didn't do something to bring her down a level or two, there was no way she would notice him as a man. But if he kept going as he was, he would put her off as well.

He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying that someone was going to have to watch you while you were on the estate and you should trust that I would be better than one of the king's thugs. They usually have some pretty peculiar notions about what it means to watch a lone woman."

She looked like she wanted to give him a scathing retort, but then memories clouded her eyes and mind. He did not really need to read her mind to know that she had seen firsthand just how brutal air dragons could be. Koko was a lot more relieved than he expected when he noticed that none of the memories involved her being forced to do anything against her will.

Why was he even bothering? Why did he even care? He was not comfortable admitting it, but that night in Monte Carlo was little more than a fluke. A right time, right place kind of thing. She needed an alibi and he needed something to make him forget the horrors of that trip. He should be content to move on. Why did he feel the need to make a bigger impression on her?

His musings on the matter were cut short by his the ringing of his cell phone. Oops, the battery was almost dead, he better change it out for a charged one. He and the others had all promised Natsume that they would always keep their phones charged and on in case anyone needed them. He pressed the accept button mindful of the blinking battery symbol on his screen.

Sumire took the opportunity of his distraction to start walking away but she stopped and paused when she heard him breathe "Shit" under his breath.

Curious, she walked back to him. "Is something wrong?"

It was all he could do to hold his expression and not panic. Already his mind could pick up distant echoes of alarm from several others. This was bad. Really, really bad. Natsume would not have ordered an evacuation unless something major had happened.

He pushed his alice to his limits to try an reach the young red dragon. All he could pick up was that Natsume was far away and getting farther. He picked up Luka close by, a distant Yuu with his mate, Anna, Mochu and Kitsuneme were all at the estate, the Imai's and their respective mates. Shit, where was Aoi?

That was not the worst part. He could also feel several minds close by, watching them. Both of them. There was some kind of interference with their thoughts but the impression he got was of predators poised to spring for an attack. Son-of-a-bitch, they needed to move, now.

He gave her a sickly and slightly creepy smile. "Uh, my phone battery just died in the middle of a call. Come on, I need to get a new one." He told her in an abnormally loud voice while grabbing her wrist.

"What? I'm not going anywhere with you!" She hissed at him and tried to jerk her hand free.

He yanked her to him and noticed she was a lot shorter than he remembered. The top of her head was only at his nose. Was she that short in Monte Carlo? Or he was taller? He shook his head marveling at what the mind does when it is under stress.

"I'm not supposed to leave you to wander about by yourself." He said again in that loud voice of his before whispering harshly in her ear. "We are being watched right now, and I don't like what the people around us are thinking." He caught the slightest widening of her eyes and she seemed to start sniffing the air. Either way he did not wait any longer for her reaction. Instead he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of rice and took off with her screaming at him the whole way.

That's it. Keep screaming. He told her silently. The screams were both amusing and confusing to their unnamed watchers. He could tell they thought the show was as amusing as hell and they did not suspect that their presence was already detected.

They made it to the house that he shared with Kitsuneme and the other weaker members of Natsume's group.

Once inside he didn't waste any time swapping out his battery, but who to call? Natsume was not anywhere close, Luka? Maybe. Sakurano would probably be better. He was a better tactician than the others and he knew the evacuation plan backward and forward.

As his phone was powering up he turned to look at Sumire and his eyes almost fell out of his head. Did she actually have cat ears and whiskers sticking out of her head? Again she was sniffing the air when she turned to look at him.

"Say one word about how I look, and I'll claw your eyes out." She warned. He nodded stupidly staring at her ears. "Now what the hell is going on? They followed us here, but they are still trying to keep their distance." She told him in a business like tone, and he nodded again because he also knew that.

"Give me a moment first and I'll explain." He told her, refocusing his attention on texting Sakurano asking the exact same question as Sumire. Once he was done that he stretched his mind out to test where his pursuers were.

Yikes, too close, and some of the clan had super hearing. He held a finger to his lips in a silent command to keep quiet while he moved to turn on the TV to a ridiculously loud volume. Again he moved in close whisper into her ear. He found it rather odd that she had two sets of ears. Did it matter which one he talked to?

"Natsume has just ordered the evacuation of every one of his supporters." He whispered urgently. "Now he wouldn't do that unless something very bad happened."

"What happened?" she whispered back, tickling his jaw line with her whiskers.

"I don't know, that is what I am trying to find out, but it freaks me out that at the same time he orders and evac, the king's people are following us."

"Could it be because of Tsubasa, Misaki and I? He did not seem interested in meeting us yesterday."

"I don't know, maybe. But I get the feeling they are following me as well." He watched as a crease appeared between her slim brows. "I need you to contact your uncle and warn them. I'll try and contact someone from here." He ordered.

Sumire's eyes went distant, and he could tell she was calling her family. If he wanted to, he could have eavesdropped on the conversation, but his phone beeped telling him he had a call from Luka.

"Hey buddy, how is it going?" He asked casually as soon as he engaged the call.

"They have Aoi." Luka said worriedly, causing Koko's stomach to drop to his feet and his mouth to go dry. He took a deep breath to brace himself.

"Is it possible to speed this thing up? Maybe a short cut?" he asked, hoping that the draman would understand that he asking permission to read his mind. It would not only be faster but more detailed than just explaining it verbally. He might have just looked into Luka's mind, but for some reason he was getting interference again. That did not make him feel any better.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't have a lot of privacy here." He said with emphasis.

"Are you with the sea dragons?"

"One." He answered curtly. His bland one word answer must have alerted Luka because the man paused before carefully asking his next question.

"Only one? Is there anyone else nearby?"

"Um-hmmm…" he mumbled quietly. He was beginning to wonder why his unwanted guests were still hanging back. If they were just there to monitor them, then why did he feel like prey? He doubted that whatever they were waiting for would let them just sit around all day.

"Damn. I'm at the clinic and we have the dampeners on. I'll leave and give you a quick look. I need you to find the sea dragons and try and get their help."

"I see." He said in a non-committal tone. "Well Sumire and I were just about to go swimming, maybe you would like to come?" he said in the overly loud voice he used for his unknown watchers just in case they were listening.

"I get what you are trying to say. You want me to meet up with you and the sea dragons by the water. I'm leaving now." He told Koko and all of a sudden the barrier between them was lifted and a wave of thoughts and feelings swept through Koko. Holy shit a lot had happened in the last few hours while he was distracted by Sumire.

'Natsume wants to try and get their help. See what you can do.' Luka said lastly. Koko pulled his mind to the here and now and found himself focusing on the sea dragon in front of him.

"Tsubasaspoke to Mikan and I heard what has happened." She murmured quietly.

"It'll be a miracle if that cousin of yours does not get us all killed." He said, just as quietly.

"We told you she was a trouble magnet. Why do you think we came to get her so fast?" She hunched her shoulders uncomfortably. "Let's get out of here. All these eyes watching are making me twitchy."

That made him bring up a point that was worrying him. "Are you sure you can help with the king's people watching?"

She gave him a pointed look "Hello? Smuggler? Thief? Does that mean anything to you? It would be an embarrassment if we couldn't smuggle a few kids out." She said confidently before striding towards the door.

He flicked off the TV idly thinking that he had no idea what program had been on this whole time. Whatever. He quickened his pace and caught up to her in no time. "By the way before I forget," he said catching her by surprise by leaning so close to her ear. "The whiskers and the ears? Very cute."

"Shut up."

It was all Anna could do to focus on her work. As it was, she had been making sloppy mistakes left and right. She had used bad flour in a crust and the mochi she tried to make looked like a moving gelatinous blob. She just could not concentrate. She wasn't brave like the others.

Ever since the message from Natsume-sama came she had been terrified and barely able to hide her non-stop shaking. Unlike most of the others, she was due to work in the main kitchen today surrounded by people from the other side. She was working in the middle of enemy territory. If even one person suspected anything strange about her, she was dead meat.

No, she told herself trying to take a steadying breath. She was not alone. Kitsuneme had made an excuse to stop by earlier. He was not able to get close enough to give her more than an encouraging smile and nod, but it was enough to remind her that there were others close by.

Not even five minutes after she thought that, Mochu stopped by. Like Kitsuneme, he was able to find and excuse to stop by the kitchen, but not a good enough one to warrant entering the food preparation area though. Mochu nodded his head at her and… wait a minute… did he just wink at her?

"Humph, that draman is getting above himself." An oily voice said from too close behind her making her shoulders tense. Trying hard not to panic, she gave the man behind her a weak smile.

"Mihara-san, you startled me." He did more than startle her, he made her flesh crawl. He had been not so subtly hitting on her for the past month or so, and she was running out of ways to dodge him. He was greasy, slimy, old enough to be her grandfather, and a black dragon to her lowly brown. If he lost his patience and chose not to wait any longer, she would have no chance against him.

Fortunately, he wasn't looking at her to see how creeped-out he made her. "That disgusting draman has some nerve showing up anywhere that forces his superiors to look at him." He turned and caressed Anna's cheek affectionately. "He did not upset you my dear with his revolting advances?"

Inside her shoes, Anna's toes curled tightly in the effort not to scream. The only revolting thing in the room was him and he was touching her. If she made the wrong move now, she had no doubt that the others in the kitchen would all turn a blind eye while he dragged her off to some dark corner to do things she did not even want to think about with him in the same context.

"I'm alright." She flat out lied. "He is a friend of Kitsuneme's and was probably just saying hello."

Mihara's face twisted into a disgusted scowl and walked away as she mentioned Kitsu's name. As a form of protection, she had kind of implied that Kistu was courting her. They had paired up for a while when they were younger so the lie was slightly believable; enough to discourage Mihara for now. She had no idea what she would do when he stopped believing.

The truth was both Mochu and Kitsuneme were dating her in an off and on basis, but because Mochu was a draman, he usually deferred to Kitsu. It could not really be called courting because neither one of them really had their hearts in it.

It was a shame really, she liked them and they liked her just fine, but there was no real spark between them. She could not help but figure that if they were not so limited in their choice of mates within the clan that none of them would have bothered to look the other's way.

Wait, what was she thinking? She was leaving tonight! That grease ball Mihara would soon be a distant bad memory. Maybe she could go to America where Mikan was and meet all kinds of handsome young dragons. The girl did say she had a big family. Oohhh, I wonder if any of them look like that hottie uncle of hers! For the first time since she spotted a black cat walking across her phone screen Anna smiled.

She would get out tonight! They all would. Definitely!

On a train bound for Aomori a young couple has just ditched the afternoon classes (and the rest of the semester) they attend at university. Sometime, much later, Yuu and Nonoko would surely be worried about what would happen to their grades and how they were going to repair the damage they were about to do to their academic record, but for now they had more pressing concerns.

Yuu was busy on his tiny laptop transferring funds and securing Natsume's holdings. His mate Nonoko was texting the Imais about poisons and drugs both effective and ineffective on dragons.

They both knew they made pretty weak dragons, which was why their job was to stay with the young ones to guard and care for them wherever they ended up going. The final destination would not be decided until they started the evacuation though, so they needed to be with them when they left.

Tsubasa felt like more had happened to him in the last two days than had happened in the last two years.

First Mikan runs away and he has to chase her down in Japan of all places. When he arrives he finds an air dragon trying to stake his claim on her and then they both run away.

And last night he persuaded Misaki into a moonlight swim but had never expected the water to stir his blood like it did. He was ready to drop to his knees and beg if she fought him anymore. As it was, he was not the only one who was affected, not only did she finally stop fighting him and what was between them, she gave him her oath as a mate.

When he woke this morning, he was ecstatic. He and his mate had celebrated their union for hours and he felt like he was on top of the world. He could not wait to tell his family. They would go wild because they really liked her.

And then hurricane Mikan happened. Again. Maybe hurricane wasn't right. Tsunami or earthquake might be more accurate. She was a walking natural disaster. He had tried to warn his hosts about the kind of destruction that followed her, but they did not listen.

Well they were listening now.

Tsubasa's mind was a quick one and getting the young and weak members of that kid Natsume's little faction out would be easy-peasy. Finding a spot to hide them might be harder. He wasn't sure how far into Asia the dragon king's power extended. It would be preferable to take them to another continent, but he needed to work that out with the others when they arrived.

Oh Mikan, what have you got us all into.

The trip to Hokkaido did not take all that long but Natsume felt on edge for most of it. About the only time he relaxed any was on the ferry ride over. He had paid extra for a private room and spent most of the ride reminding his adorable little idiot sea dragon just who her mate was. It was kind of funny watching her try to stay quiet so no one would hear what they were doing.

But aside from that, he was worried about his people. He was worried about calling an evacuation. What if he had called it too soon? What if he had called it too late?

He had always envisioned that he would either be protecting their backs or possibly even dead. He had never figured he would be sitting on the sidelines like this. It was agonizing. With supreme effort he resisted calling and texting over and over again. They knew what to do; he just had to trust them to do it. Nevertheless, he fidgeted the whole bus ride to through Hokkaido while Mikan fell asleep on his shoulder.

They got off in what looked like the middle of nowhere, and began hiking. After an hour of following the map Mikan had they had arrived at a big nowhere.

"Gimme that!" he ordered snatching the map from her. The afternoon had started to wane and so had his patience. The closer to night he got the more on tense he got. He didn't really mean to snap at her, but he needed something to vent on and she was the only one for miles.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, he looked at the map and the surrounding forest. As much as he wanted to blame her for a lousy sense of direction, she was right. They were indeed in the right spot… there was just nothing here. He made an irritated sound in his throat.

"There see?" she said sniping at him. He could tell his edginess was affecting her as well. "It is just not here! Even the GPS co-ordinates are right, but there is nothing here but forest! How can a whole lake just disappear?" she asked rhetorically. "Maybe we should head back to that trail we saw and try and find someone to get directions from." Without waiting for him, she stalked off in the direction of the trail.

That idea turned out to be just as useless as walking in circles hoping to see something. By now the afternoon shadows were growing longer and they were sniping at each other almost non-stop. "If this place does not show up by sunset, we are going back to the estate." Natsume warned her. He'd had enough of this wild goose chase. They had run into a dozen different hikers and tourists and none of them had even heard of the lake they were talking about.

Screw it, they were heading back now.

"Yuka-chan?" a voice called out from almost nowhere causing them to look around. There, leaning against a tree where Natsume was certain no one had been a second before, was a man. The stranger did not even spare a glance in Natsume's direction; his eyes were all on Mikan, which made the dragon's hackles rise.

"Yuka-chan!" he cried joyfully and glomped onto Mikan.

tbc

AN: Do I even need to say who is coming up next? I could give you three guesses, but I think you will only need one.

So yeah this probably comes off as a filler chapter, but I wanted to show how far the ripples of Mikan's arrival extend. And for those of you who do not remember Mihara, he was that creepy guy working for Z with the medusa alice. Volume 6 or 7? Something like that anyway, I feel like this chapter should have had a siren going off in the background and someone screaming "battle stations!" Like everyone is getting ready for war.

I had quite the problem with one part of this chapter. I think I need to get in touch with my inner Koko. Out of all the characters in this chapter, he was by far the hardest for me. Does anyone else out there find it hard to work with him or is it just me?

;)